Obama Unbound: The Man Behind the Myth
Obama's past is key to understanding the fervor surrounding his campaign, writes Bernard Chapin -- and the way to figure out what we can expect from him if elected.
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Who is Barack Obama? At the present time he clearly is more than the sum of his parts. He’s not your average political tsunami. Despite only being on the national scene for three and a half years, the junior senator from Illinois is perfectly positioned to win the Democratic Party’s nomination. After that, only John McCain stands between Obama and the title of commander-in-chief.
Those of us on the right are rather confounded by the Obama-o-rama. Our televisions deliver imagery of percolating crowds and throngs of fainting women, yet we cannot help but wonder how a vague and airy candidate produces such hysterical levels of devotion. Indeed, Stevie Wonder wrote a song about him which sums up his superficial stances perfectly. Its lyrics are nothing more than variations on the candidate’s first and last name.
Clearly there’s more to the Obama monomania than vapid rhetoric. Blatant deception is integral to his appeal. He speaks of unity and there being no hyphenated Americans, but his Senate votes clash with his message. The man promising change in our time is anything but a moderate. This particular “rock star,” like so many others, is a left-wing, partisan member of the Democratic Party. His votes in 2006 earned him an American Conservative Union rating of 8. The only way he will bring us together is if half the country moves to the left of John Kerry and his ACU rating of 12.
His campaign mantra is “Change You Can Believe In,” but his inauguration will ring in copious quantities of the same statism that currently debilitates us. He rails against corporate lobbyists yet reflexively supports the expansion of the government. The bureaucrats and functionaries of the leviathan are the true wielders of undemocratic power and influence in our nation.
All of his “solutions” to “problems” are contingent upon Washington “helping” people. Based on past experience, this is a tenuous proposition. His imaginative plan to fix Social Security involves the raising of taxes. His economic agenda, “Keeping America’s Promise,” will add $200 billion in new spending to a federal budget that now gambles away over three trillion dollars a year. Change and Barack Obama do not belong together in the same sentence. The man is nothing more than Jimmy Carter with a pleasant disposition.
Shelby Steele, author of the impeccable White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era, has recently released A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win, a concise work which fully elucidates the nature of Obama’s personality. It outlines the dynamics of his racial identity and how it affects his political views.
Steele and Obama have much in common and the author’s sympathy for his subject is readily evident. Both men were a product of interracial unions involving a white mother and a black father. Steele’s rewarding examination of Obama was made possible by the one-man-social-movement’s penning of a partial autobiography, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, over a decade ago.
Steele regards Obama’s memoir as “almost naïve in its degree of self-disclosure.” We discover that - while he is equal parts white and black - the senator has always identified more with his father’s race than that of his mother, even though his mother, along with his maternal grandmother and grandfather, raised him.
Despite its brevity, A Bound Man beams with insight. Race is depicted as a brutal reality that pushes aside human experience while erecting barriers between individuals. Steele illuminates the vicissitudes of a man inheriting the legacy of two races. A mixed child reared by white relatives can sometimes possess a mindset wherein he feels as if life is a lengthy process of collaboration with the enemy.
The moral authority bestowed upon blacks causes many mixed youths to instinctively gravitate towards the race of goodness. Upon maturity they may reject the “white world” in the hopes of becoming authentically black. The repudiation of half of their relations can produce considerable angst. In Obama’s case, the search for a black identity became “a lifelong preoccupation.” Steele believes that the senator views his blackness more as “an achievement than a birthright.”
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22 Comments
David Thomson:“It ended with her apologizing for being white and expressing a desire to be black.”
This explains the vast majority of Barack “Barry” Obama’s guilt tripped white supporters. This is the number one reason why they are attracted to such a shallow and banal man. The possibility that he could become our next commander-in-chief should send chills down your spine. This man is truly an empty suit. He has mastered only one major talent in his entire life: he is a superb manipulator of whites who feel guilty concerning our country’s history of racism.
Feb 21, 2008 - 6:16 am Aaron:Nice book report. Sounds like someone got a little too excited in Psych 101 and decided to psychoanalyze a man they’ve never met.
White guilt? Give me a break. Like him or not, it’s clear that Obama has a wide appeal across lines of race, class, and gender. I see conservatives insinuating all the time that his appeal to whites is primarily based on white guilt, but they never back it up with any evidence, only psychobabble.
Conservatives have a reputation for being racist, and to quote Gary Hubbell, I am annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes.
Feb 21, 2008 - 8:34 am AJ:Grow up, Aaron. White Guilt is a HUGE factor. He’s not winning amongst latinos and asians, who rightly see through him.
Also, the article elaborates on every other reason this man is not only unqualified, but VERY dangerous….though I wish Chapin would go more into his naive foreign policy.
Feb 21, 2008 - 9:20 am venividivici:I see conservatives insinuating all the time that his appeal to whites is primarily based on white guilt, but they never back it up with any evidence, only psychobabble.
I didn’t know “guilt” was a non-psychological entity. How else are people supposed to “back up” an assertion about a psychological state except with psychological terminology?
It’s pretty clear that “white guilt” plays the same role in Obama’s campaign as the fact that Bush’s dad was President played in his, in that it allows people to give him the benefit of the doubt.
I’m much more bothered by the fact that Obama considers known Communists as mentors. To me, that’s about as low as a person can go and not sprout horns. I don’t care how much “white guilt” you have, you don’t want Marxist policies making further headway in the US.
Feb 21, 2008 - 9:52 am SAM:People, can anybody do anything good without mounds of hidden evil intensions? Grow up fellow humans and stop pecking at each other like chicken. Obama has all the odds possible in society against him but natural endouments. He is pleading with America and the world at large to soar like eagles above our petty chicken-like behaviours. We are not always perfect but we can use some common sense and do what is right. Thanks
Feb 21, 2008 - 10:34 am AJ:Sam:
Nice poem.
Obama actually has all the odds in HIS FAVOR. You don’t understand the PC world we live. Being black, a leftist troop hater, a muslim with no experience and a checkered past is EXACTLY what half of America, insanely, wants.
Feb 21, 2008 - 11:00 am AJ:To elaborate, white guilt libs declared Hussein Obama their savior the moment his speech began in 2004 for Kerry. He was not even a senator at the time!
Electing Obama is all part of the leftist, communist propaganda aimed at the destruction of the West. See, Sam and Aaron, as a friend noted to me this morning, “every leftist believes that, in the end, when America is finally destroyed as a nation, he/she, because of their superior intelligence and early participation as a vanguard for the cause, will have entry into the elite cabal that will control society and hence be able to keep their wealth and own living standard at the expense of the ignorant, proletarian rabble — 99.99999% of them will be in for a rude awakening — it would almost be worth it to see them aghast at what they have wrought.”
He’s right. Hopefully, we will use this aberration from America’s proud past and tradition for real progress in the future. We’ll just look at 2008 as a time when the moonbats took control and put us in danger.
Feb 21, 2008 - 11:04 am venividivici:People, can anybody do anything good without mounds of hidden evil intensions?
Yeah, I do it all the time, for my friends and family and people I judge deserving who happen to be outside those circles, not the whole damn world.
And, yes, in case you’re wondering, I absolutely reserve the right to determine who is “deserving”.
Feb 21, 2008 - 11:53 am Andrew:Those of you who put Obama’s appeal as white guilt are either stupid or have racist tendencies. While this post is better written than most on PJ Media the conclusion of the author is utter speculation. How does he know what Obama will do as president. In 1999 he probably said that George Bush would be a uniter, not nation build, improve the economy, create jobs, drive down the price of gas. Give me a break. I don’t know what Obama will do as president but I am willing to give him a shot. I guess we will find out because he will win in November.
Feb 21, 2008 - 12:14 pm AJ:Andrew, stop calling names. Every person I know who dislikes Obama (or Hillary) would vote for a black man (or woman) IF they were the right person. These two are unqualified, dangerous and far left.
And we know Obama would be a disaster. He has not shown any inclination he is more qualified to be president than you, I, or the local college moonbat prof on the corner. Please. Wake up. Tell your friends.
And Bush, as any GOPer will tell you, is hardly a conservative. He’s moderate and his silly liberal policies are an effort to unite us…not that elite libs on the coast want to unite with good hard working, church-going, honest folks in the heartland with 4 kids in the military.
“Uniting” America relies on patriotism, knowledge and a memory of why and how this country became so great. The left has no interest in that. Yoga and film festivals are more important.
Feb 21, 2008 - 1:17 pm Aaron:How else are people supposed to “back up” an assertion about a psychological state except with psychological terminology?
Use all the psychological terminology you want, but back it up with polls, studies, interviews, something that indicates that it plays more than a minor role. Note: stating over and over that it plays a huge role does not count as evidence.
It’s pretty clear that “white guilt” plays the same role in Obama’s campaign as the fact that Bush’s dad was President played in his, in that it allows people to give him the benefit of the doubt.
I disagree. Likability and perceived authenticity play a much greater role in terms of whether politicians are given the benefit of the doubt. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Mike Huckabee all had or have a high degree of likability and perceived authenticity when they were running, and Obama does as well. Likable candidates get thrown softballs by the media and voters. Less likable candidates, most recently HRC and Romney, don’t as much, which I’m sure drives them nuts.
And didn’t something like 11% of Republicans think they were voting for George H W Bush in 2000? Anyway if white guilt were such a huge factor, wouldn’t the Dems have nominated a black candidate before now?
AJ: I consider myself a moderate, but I’ve talked to a fair number of whacko far-left types, and none of them believe that goofy stuff your friend is spouting. Come back to earth, brother. It’s a nice place. Count to ten or something. Honestly I think that Republicans, with their high level of gun ownership, would probably survive much better in the post-apocalyptic world.
Feb 21, 2008 - 1:31 pm Bob:I hate to throw cold water on the concluding line about how thrilled the founders would be with America choosing a black — or half-black president, but in fact, many of the founders owned black slaves, and their descendants fought a war to protect slavery, which kind of suggests to me that they would not necessarily view a black president as a “realization of their finest dreams.”
Feb 21, 2008 - 2:48 pm venividivici:Use all the psychological terminology you want, but back it up with polls, studies, interviews, something that indicates that it plays more than a minor role. Note: stating over and over that it plays a huge role does not count as evidence.
Given that white liberals cannot be honest about race, I don’t know of any possible way to get accurate polling data on this to show that it plays any role, so I’m deducing it from my experience of being around liberals my entire life, growing up in Massachusetts.
Likability and perceived authenticity play a much greater role in terms of whether politicians are given the benefit of the doubt. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Mike Huckabee all had or have a high degree of likability and perceived authenticity when they were running, and Obama does as well.
All of those individuals had much longer records in politics as well as “authenticity and likeability”, so I’m not persuaded that the analogy to Obama’s campaign is appropriate. Also, the level of fervor for Obama goes beyond that for any of the above mentioned politicians and is much more reminiscent of a psychodrama being played out than a political campaign. While one can attribute at least some of that heightened fervor to the fact that people are looking forward to turning the page and hopefully moving on from the Bush years, I think a full accounting has to take note of the “white guilt” angle.
Anyway if white guilt were such a huge factor, wouldn’t the Dems have nominated a black candidate before now?
Not if they wanted to get a Democrat elected. The Boomer generation may have had an impact on integrating society, but the black leaders that emerged from the Boomer generation were too confrontational. Only after blacks had become more integrated into society and achieved some modicum of mainstream success could a candidate emerge whose political career was not one of direct confrontation with a white power structure, such as Obama. “White guilt” only goes so far as an explanation, after all, because the Democratic Party would have ceased to exist as an institution had they nominated people like Jesse Jackson. So I don’t see any contradiction between saying that “white guilt” is a major component of Obama’s nomination (along with the abominable idiocy of the remaining candidates) and the fact that Democrats had not to this day nominated a black candidate. Nice try to explain it away, though.
Finally, there’s another “white” angle in Obama’s candidacy, which is that a lot of “white” losers who need government handouts to make it in life want to take the money that other “whites” have rightfully earned, including myself. It’s a “two-for-one” to be able to assuage “white guilt” and “stick it” to the whites who’ve actually done something with their lives, as opposed to the pathetic rabble that supports Democrats. It’s easy to ask for government handouts when it isn’t your money being handed out, isn’t it? The FACT that I will be subsidizing other pathetic “whites” who can’t support themselves makes me want to vomit.
Feb 21, 2008 - 5:09 pm sojerofGod:I am a son of the South. (note the capitalization there, suh,)
It is my experience that liberal types, and northern/northeastern ones in particular are more racist in their attitudes than most people in the Southeast, who actually live around African-Americans. It is always the soft-condescension of a paternalistic racism: Blacks/browns/hispanic/whatever need our kindly guiding hand so they are encouraged to make the proper “choices” They don’t consider them to be able to stand on their own. They don’t want them to. To me that is the most evil, pernicious form of racism because it robs the target of opportunity and hope, and feeds them on the foul meat of resentment. But hey, boy it sure does a great job of getting white liberal guys elected!
SojerofGod
http://www.americanbumpersticker.com/
Feb 21, 2008 - 6:12 pm sojerofGod:I am a son of the South. (note the capitalization there, suh,)
It is my experience that liberal types, and northern/northeastern ones in particular are more racist in their attitudes than most people in the Southeast, who actually live around African-Americans. It is always the soft-condescension of a paternalistic racism: Blacks/browns/hispanic/whatever need our kindly guiding hand so they are encouraged to make the proper “choices” They don’t consider them to be able to stand on their own. They don’t want them to. To me that is the most evil, pernicious form of racism because it robs the target of opportunity and hope, and feeds them on the foul meat of resentment. But hey, boy it sure does a great job of getting white liberal guys elected!
SojerofGod
Feb 21, 2008 - 6:16 pm AJ:http://www.americanbumpersticker.com/
the man from the south is 100% correct
Feb 21, 2008 - 7:40 pm Aaron:northern libs can say and vote how they want. they, like all the elite lefties (chomsky, zinn, moore, etc) live in 99% white communities. total hypocrites. if they lived around other types, which they never would since they are the bigger racists, they might feel differently
and as to owning slaves, every white person in the world did at the time. and who knows how they ultimately felt? america is the least racist nation on earth. if you turned off CNN, traveled or read a book, you’d know that. especially europe, where racism is endemic. just look all the wars they have. and small town euros hate “minorities” unless they’re muslim—then they just tolllllerate them.
venividivici, I’m going to borrow your logic for a moment:
- From growing up in rural Ohio and my experience being around conservatives my whole life, I believe that conservatives are racist.
- The degree of dislike I see against Obama goes above and beyond simply disagreeing with his politics.
- People who are racist are not honest about race and would never admit that they are racist.
From this, I can conclude that racism is a HUGE factor when it comes to people not liking Obama. And I would be justified making posts saying “blah blah people who don’t like Obama (racism) blah blah blah.”
However, I don’t happen to think that racism is a major reason for people not liking Obama. It’s unsubstantiated and impossible to substantiate. A lot of liberals believe it though, using the same line of thinking that you’re using with white guilt. It’s just a convenient thing to believe about people you already look down on.
Feb 22, 2008 - 11:44 am venividivici:Aaron,
First off, nothing in my post relies on any sort of “compare and contrast” between conservatives and liberals. Even if every conservative in America were a raging KKK supporter, that doesn’t mean liberals are “honest about race”. Nor is the amount of conservative “hatred” of Obama commensurate with the adoration he is getting from his supporters. I personally disagree with all of the man’s policies, but I don’t hate him. I don’t have any emotional feeling toward him, neither good nor ill. When I said I want to vomit, it’s due to the policies he supports, which will raise my taxes. I don’t care if David Duke was the one advocating those policies, I would still want to vomit.
You can’t honestly say that “rural Ohio” has politics as out of the mainstream as Massachusetts, so your “logic” is once again faulty.
The only thing in your post that’s accurate is that, yes, I do look down on all liberals and people looking for handouts.
Feb 22, 2008 - 3:31 pm mike cato:Can we please get down to the heart of the matter, for a “change?” In Obama’s
Feb 24, 2008 - 11:06 amsudden rise from the void, from nullity, we are witness to the results of forty years of “white/european gullt” brainwashing. (my parents were born beside the Vistula river, in Poland–there were few, if any, black slaves there) We , white europeans are GULITY; we must now atone for that guilt, by electing an African -American to the high office of President. Substance matters naught; skin color is all.